Today the weather is described as overcast - a specialist name which I don't seem to know the rules of use. I regard any day, or even part of the day where the clouds block the sun as being overcast, but apparently some times that is incorrect. Today clouds, some dark and heavy, and some light and white, will cover the sky, and today we can call it overcast ! It is not only going to be a completely sunless day, but it is is going to be cold. The latest revision says the temperature will only reach 8° C for a single hour at 4pm. Most of the day will be 7° C. Tomorrow could be even more overcast, and the maximum temperature may only be 6° C.

    Let's start with some good news. My cold, of which there will follow some commentary, seems to have dried up this morning. It either wasn't a very good cold, or I treated it correctly. Some of that correct treatment started many months ago when I added Vitamin C plus Zinc to my daily collection of pills.

  As I noted yesterday, I woke up with a sort of peppery feeling up my nose, and my nose started to fountain ! In the first hours of yesterday morning I was getting through a man sized tissue every minute or two. That was obviously starting to make the end of my nose feel sore. I rubbed on Vicks "vapourub" because I thought that the menthol might help. It may or may not have done, but I am sure the Vasoline base of "Vapourub" helped to moisturise my nose, and helped stop it getting too sore.

  Being ill meant I had to suspend my intention to reduce my electricity consumption, and keep a heater going almost all day. By using my warmest indoor clothes I did have the heater on low for most of the day. Oddly enough, the cold didn't make me seem more sensitive to cold. I monitored my body temperature many times during the day, and never saw a sign of any fever. In fact my temperature seemed very normal.

  Maybe it was fortunate that I didn't feel cold because I wasn't tempted to start eating anything, probably hot soup, to keep warm. I did eat quite a lot of peanuts  over the course of the day, but spread out over the day with some now and then. I was aware that even a simple cold could make my blood glucose level go up, but that didn't seem to be the case - maybe because peanuts don't seem to effect my blood glucose even if they do contain a lot of calories.

  Having to constantly blow my nose was obviously an annoyance,but oddly enough it didn't seem to annoy me. Maybe it was because I had a sort of good feeling that it might just be a 24 hour cold, and even if not that, then I was very optimistic that I would not develop a bad cough after not smoking for ten years. Maybe it was also a great excuse to have a few whiskies later in the afternoon, and more in the evening.

  One thing I was not looking forward to was spending much time in the cold, unheated kitchen. It could have been early afternoon that a seed was planted in my mind that came to fruition in the early evening. I had a yearning for a hot dinner, and by hot I meant hot, steamy, and spicy ! The idea that grew in my mind was for a Vindaloo curry - the second hottest curry that most Indian restaurants sell (the hottest being a phall).

  I decided to use one of the local Indian Takeaways directly - not going via Just Eats. I hoped, and I think it was the case that I saved a bit of money because obviously Just Eat didn't skim off their fee. The restaurant would also have gained too. I used the restaurants website to make my order, and to pay by credit card. The only thing which worried me was that there seemed to be no way to say I didn't want my card details to be saved for use on future orders. That could be a bit of a security risk. Hopefully the card payment facilitator they use practices good data hygiene.

  As usual I ordered enough for two dinners, and although the second dinner might be a bit thin, the total cost was only £23. That included a small discount for ordering over £20 worth of food. I think it took about 30 minutes before it was delivered, and that seemed very reasonable. I can foresee me using the place more in the future, and with good reason. That reason is not that it is moderately economical, but that it seems what I ate last night was kind to my blood glucose - an important factor in my lifestyle.

  It was about 6pm when I started eating while watching Star Trek: Enterprise. I didn't bother watching Star Trek: The Original Series because the Electronic Programme Guide description was of an episode that seemed to have only been screen a month or two ago. I watched a really stupid documentary style programme about mad Nazi, and Russian, science. It was one of many sensationalist documentaries where (possibly mad) people explain their theories without offering a shred of evidence.

  By the time I came to eat my dinner it seemed my nose was getting less drippy. That was a good thing because my steaming hot Vindaloo would cause my nose to run on the best of days, but if anything it seemed to make it run less, but maybe that was after I had eaten, and thoroughly enjoyed it. If there was one bad thing about it, it was that it had less meat and potato in it that I seemed to remember from days, many, many years ago when I ate them more frequently.

  I watched more TV, including an episode of The Simpsons, but I drew the line at watching QI because one of the panellists was Johnny Vegas. I can't stand that thicko. It seemed a bit early to go to bed, and so I looked at some stuff on the internet for maybe half an hour, maybe a bit longer. I then went to bed. That was good because it was nice and warm under the duvet, and I could keep the heater on low (I had been turning it to full now and then during the evening).

  One of the good things about my nose starting to dry up, was also that my eyes were starting to dry up (and most of the liquid for snot comes via a tiny little tube from the eyes). During the afternoon I was unable to read while laying on my bed because my watery eyes made reading the print difficult (although it would have been OK if I had been sitting up). Yesterday evening I could read OK while laying in bed. I took the time to catch up with some of my missed reading, but ultimately the weight of the book was making my arms and wrists ache.

  It took some time before I managed to fall asleep. One problem was that my right elbow, which is giving me a lot of trouble now, was aching. The only position it didn't ache in was too uncomfortable as a sleep position. Then there was the old problem of my bedroom being warm enough that I felt too hot under the duvet. later in the night as everything cools down, it is less of a problem, but at the start of my sleep I had to get the proportion of body covered to uncovered just right.

  I think it was around 3am when I had to make a decision about the heater. It was then almost cool enough to sleep under the duvet, but only almost. I could have turned the heater off, and fallen asleep with maybe an arm and a leg uncovered, only to wake up an hour later feeling cold, or I could turn the heater up full, and kick off the duvet if needed. I chose the latter. One good thing about the night was that I can only remember having to leave my warm bedroom, to go the the very cold toilet once in the night.

  The lack of night time peeing was reason to hope that maybe my blood glucose was still fairly low, and it turns out it was. My now favourite blood glucose meter, the Bayer Contour, which can still show a dangerously high reading if that is the case, was actually showing a nice low reading of 7.9mmol/l/ The GlucoRX meter was in close agreement at 8.2mmol/l. The Sino Care meter, on a second attempt with a fresh blood sample, showed 8.9mmol/l. I fear I can't trust that meter, and maybe once the several months of test strips I have for it run out, I may well retire it.

  It is most encouraging that in the last 3 hours since getting out of bed, I have only needed a single man sized tissue because I have produced only an odd rip of snot. It is as if I am fully cured !  I must admit that I have been looking for any lingering symptoms, and the only one I can find is probably more cowardice/sensible, and is a desire to keep warm today, and rest while I can. If it were sunny out, even if still freezing cold, I could have been tempted to put on my thickest coat and go for a mile or two walk in the park. I might even have gone shopping in Tesco, but I don't think I need to do that, and so won't. Today I will enjoy being lazy without any qualms about it.....but than again, I rarely have any worries about being lazy - I didn't when I was a working man, and I am certainly not going to be when I am retired.